Preserving
Black Heritage
Historical Resources
Explore our curated collection of historically significant Black collectibles, featuring carefully researched and reviewed educational content.
James Baldwin Manuscript Letter on Race and America
This powerful archival group features three original James Baldwin-related manuscript items. The centerpiece is a handwritten page from Baldwin’s essay “The Negro Writer’s Vision of America,” written in his distinctive blue ink script, where he reflects on the role of Black artists and states that his models as a writer are “black musicians & dancers” rather than other writers. Also included is the heavily inscribed title page and cast list from the 1965 production of Baldwin’s play The Amen Corner, filled with warm personal dedications and signatures from Baldwin (“Jimmy”) and others involved in the production. A third item is a personal handwritten letter dated January 17, 1977, offering intimate insight into Baldwin’s circle and creative process.
2017-W 1 oz High Relief 225th Anniversary American Liberty Gold Coin NGC PF70
Struck by the U.S. Mint at West Point, this 1 oz, .9999 fine gold coin commemorates the Mint’s 225th anniversary and features a revolutionary design of Liberty as an African American woman for the first time in U.S. coinage history. Graded the highest possible PF70 Ultra Cameo by NGC, this high relief proof issue is celebrated for its dramatic depth, flawless surfaces, and spectacular cameo contrast. The obverse presents Liberty in a modern, youthful profile crowned with stars, while the reverse features a bold American bald eagle in flight.
James VanDerZee – Couple in Raccoon Coats (1932)
James VanDerZee’s Couple in Raccoon Coats is one of the most celebrated photographic portraits of the Harlem Renaissance. The image depicts an elegant African American couple dressed in fashionable raccoon coats, standing confidently beside their automobile on a Harlem street. VanDerZee carefully composed the photograph to emphasize sophistication, prosperity, and style, presenting an image of Black life that contrasted sharply with the stereotypes commonly depicted in mainstream media of the era. His studio portraits and street photographs captured the social vibrancy and cultural pride of Harlem during the early 20th century. The photograph remains an enduring symbol of the dignity and self-expression that defined the Harlem Renaissance.
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Black Grail Score in Action
Black Grail Score
out of 100
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl — Rare Presentation Copy
This first-edition copy of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Boston, 1861) is an exceptional presentation copy given by Harriet Jacobs’s daughter, Louisa Jacobs, to Sarah R. May, wife of abolitionist Rev. Samuel May Jr., in 1886. Bound in the publisher’s original light brown beaded cloth with gilt spine, this near-fine copy remains unrestored and is accompanied by extraordinary provenance: two period obituaries for Harriet Jacobs mounted within the book, and a fourteen-page holograph letter describing Jacobs’s 1897 funeral service, including a handwritten copy of the eulogy delivered by Rev. Francis James Grimké, a leading African American minister of the era. The letter, written by Sarah Earle to Samuel May, is the only known surviving eyewitness account of Jacobs’s funeral. The Mays were close friends and supporters of the Jacobs School, a Freedmen’s school founded in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1863 by Harriet and Louisa Jacobs to educate formerly enslaved Black children—a project that embodied Harriet’s belief that Black educators were essential for community empowerment.
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